


Change in Plans

by TheAnimeWriterLover



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Break Up, Comedy, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family, Fenton Parents Know About Their Son Being Danny Phantom, Friendship, Phantom Planet Didn't Happen In This Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-18 01:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11281113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnimeWriterLover/pseuds/TheAnimeWriterLover
Summary: It was his last year in high school and Danny knew that his grades weren’t the best. How could it, when he still tried to balance his ghost and human lives with complications in between? His parents knew this, but the last thing that he expected was for them to hire a tutor for him. Great, now he has to worry about two things. One, keep his secret identity from his new tutor. Two, try not to make things worse with Sam. It should be that easy, right?





	Change in Plans

Dinner should have been the same as always. There was a mutated food that his dad got his hands on, by accident. His mom sighed and got one of their ghost guns out and shot the mutated thing to obliteration. He sat in silence, thinking over the last day events. Jasmine no longer lived with them, ever since she left for college. So her seat was empty, but not for long. In a few months was her graduation, and his would happen in 6 months. The thought made the halfa wince. His grades weren’t the… best. How could they, when he had to fight ghosts that decided to come for a ‘chat’? That, and things between him and Sam became pretty bad. As much as he cares for her, Danny couldn’t put his personal life ahead of his superhero one. He tried, but it never worked. People depended on him. If he didn’t do his job, then many could get hurt or even die. Tucker understood where he came from, but Sam? She used to, but nowadays she grew more and more frustrated with his late arrivals. This led to many fights, one of which happened today over the phone. They had plans to go to the movies, but he was so late that the movie they wanted to see was long over. She wasn’t even there to greet him.

The last thing that Danny wanted was for things to get any more complicated. But of course, this dinner wasn’t going to be the same as always.

“Danny, your father and I want to talk to you about something.”

His mom broke his thought process as she put away the gun. He blinked and looked at her direction.

“What is it?”

Both he and his father asked at the same time. Maddie glared at her husband and elbowed him in the ribs, which caused him to groan.

“You know, about _that_.”

“That?”

She sighed.

“What we talked about for the last two weeks.”

He blinked a few times and snapped his fingers in realization.

“Oh, _that_.”

“Uh, can someone tell me what’s going on?”

Danny broke the conversation to return to the main topic, whatever it was. The woman looked at him with a worried look and rested a hand on his. She began to explain:

“Sweetheart, this is about your grades. Your teachers called us a few weeks ago, telling us that you are failing your classes.” Her son opened his mouth to make a comment, but she raised a hand. “No, let me finish. Danny, your father and I know that it’s hard for you to fight both ghosts and get your homework done, but this is unacceptable. We talked about this before. No Fenton gets lower than an A, except your father. He gets B-‘s.”

“Solid B-’s”

Jack reminded her and continued with eating his food.

“Yes, now, we took it upon ourselves to do something about this.”

Danny’s gut told him that what was to come next he wouldn’t like, at all. He laughed with nervousness:

“I know my grades are bad, but you didn’t have to do anything. I’m fine, really. It’s not like I need a tutor or something.” The silence at the table and his parents’ looks froze him. His mouth dropped open in shock. No, it couldn’t be true. He stuttered. “P-Please don’t tell me you got me a tutor.”

“Well, we did.”

His dad said after he gulped his mashed potatoes.

“ _What_?” Danny shouted, getting onto his feet in a flash. “You can’t be serious.”

Maddie looked at him with a disapproval frown.

“We are quite serious. These last two weeks we have been looking for a tutor and found one. She’s a brilliant young woman your age, who agreed to help you study. Your study sessions will be every day after school for a few hours. If need be, they will be longer. Her weekends are off, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Not worry? I have good reasons to worry.” The halfa argued, sitting back down when he got a pointed look from his parents. “I already have a hard time managing everything. I don’t exactly have a schedule for when ghosts appear, so I have to balance it out with my schooling and life somehow. I already have little time as it is to hang out with Tucker and Sam.”

“Ah, your friends will understand, especially your girlfriend.”

Jack shrugged, not seeing the real problem. No, he really didn’t get it, because Danny didn’t tell them about his problems with Sam. If he told them now, would they cancel the study sessions? _It’s worth a shot_ , the black headed teenager thought. He continued to argue:

“Tucker, sure, but not Sam. We have been having problems lately _because_ of my time management.”

“Then you’ll have to learn how to manage it better. You don’t see us running around like chickens without our heads.” At that moment, a mutated cooked chicken ran by the table. Jack gave a nervous chuckle when his wife crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look. “Ahhh, I’ll get that honey. Get back here!”

The father chased after the chicken with a gun that appeared out of nowhere. Maddie sighed and turned back to her son. She didn’t know this, but it still wasn’t a good excuse. With a heavy heart, she apologized to him:

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you’ll have to put your relationship on hold. Sam is mature, I’m sure that she’ll understand like Tucker.” The red headed woman rested a comforting hand on her distressed son’s shoulder. “If this is meant to be, then your relationship _will_ survive. But right now, your grades are far more important. If you don’t pass, you won’t graduate and will have to repeat the year. It won’t look good to any college or university you’ll want to attend in the future.”

Danny sighed in defeat, knowing that she was right. His grades were far too important right now to jeopardize. His dreams of being an astronaut were long gone, but he still wanted to work for NASA, at the least. Yet, with his current grades, they won’t even look at his direction. But if he studied now and get at least some A’s, he might have a good career. There was only one problem.

“How am I supposed to keep my powers a secret?”

“Like I said, Danny, she’s only going to be here for a few hours. It’s not a lot of time, so I’m sure you’ll manage to keep your secret safe. You also have us and your friends. We’ll take care of the ghosts for you, if need be. All I ask of you is to give her a chance. She’s a good girl that wants to help.”

Danny felt guilty when he saw the pleading look of his mother’s. He hated to make her worry and disappoint her. He thought that those days were over when he told them his secret. It appeared that they did, on some level. Only now the worrisome was directed to something else. If anything, he’d only have to keep his ghost powers a secret at least until graduation. It wasn’t that far off, so if he’d manage to do that, then it’d be a success. It wasn’t like he’d ever see her again afterwards. At last, he nodded and gave his mom a small smile.

“Alright, I’ll give this a chance.”

“Oh I’m so glad.”

Maddie all but squealed and pulled her son into a hug. Danny blushed in embarrassment, but didn’t make any attempt to push her off. When she pulled away, he asked in realization:

“When is she coming?”

“Tomorrow, right after school. But she goes to a different high school, which is across town. So it’ll give you an extra 15 minutes in case you have to fight a ghost, but no more than that. For all the interviews we had, she came on time. I’m warning you now, young man. Do _not_ be late.”

Danny chuckled and waved off her worries.

“Don’t sweat it mom, I’m not going to be late.”

-ooOOoo-

“I’m going to be late!” Danny shouted in realization as he flew past the town’s clock tower. He huffed as he hit his back against a wall, spider webs spread around him. He groaned with dizziness. The one ghost that he had to fight today was Skulker of all people. When the ghost appeared in front of him with a confident smile, the halfa stated. “Look, Skulker, I don’t have the time to fight you.”

“You say that all the time ghost child, but today I will-”

Skulker started with his usual speech, but got cut off by Danny who got out of the wall. The teenager glared at him.

“Listen, I’m being serious this time. I do _not_ have the time, I have to meet up with my new tutor and-”

“Wait, you have a tutor?”

The ghost asked in complete shock. Green eyes rolled at the question.

“Yes, I do. Now, I have 3 minutes before she shows up and my house is on the other end of town. We can reschedule this fight for later, like in a few hours. After that, we can fight for as long as you want. How about that?”

“Hm…” Skulker mocked with thoughtfulness. “How about… no!”

5 bazookas came out of his machine suit and glowed dark pink, ready to shoot. Before they did, the duo heard a familiar beeping noise. Danny crossed his arms with an amused smile. Skulker looked anything but amused.

“Ugh, not again.”

Without his command, his jet pack activated and flew him off someplace else. The halfa teenager sighed in relief and landed in front of his best friends. The trio changed a lot over the last few years in appearances. They all grew taller, with Tucker and Danny towering over the female of the group. Their outfits changed a bit as well, but kept their colour schemes. From all the running and fighting, the halfa of the group built muscles, while the others stayed skinny. Still, their personalities didn’t change, much. There were only two things that changed. Hormones no longer were issues, like when they were 14. And they grew more mature, but they still had their immature moments.

“You know, he should really stop relying on that suit.” Tucker stated with his PDA in his hand and a smug look. “It’s pretty funny and sad at the same time that he didn’t upgrade it, yet.”

“Don’t mention that. It reminds me of Skulker from the future.” The trio shivered at the same time at the memory. “Anyways, I have to go, before mom and dad will embarrass me in front of my tutor.”

“Have fun dude. If you need anything, we’re only a call away.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Sam muttered underneath her breath as she crossed her arms and looked away. The two males looked at her then at each other. Tucker shrugged. Danny looked on with helplessness. He needed to do something about this. His parents and new tutor can wait, but not his girlfriend. He tried to comfort her:

“Sam, listen-”

“Danny, just go.”

The Goth replied as she turned her back to him and walked away. The guys looked back at each other, unsure of what to do. Danny’s shoulders heaved down and he looked down at his feet. He whispered:

“I don’t mean to ignore her.”

“I know” His friend replied with sympathy and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Listen, I’ll go calm her down. I’ll keep you updated, but right now you _really_ have to go. It’s 3:45.”

The halfa stiffened when he heard the time. He was late and he was going to get into so much trouble. He gave his best friend a weak, but grateful smile.

“Thanks, I’ll see you later?”

“You can count on it.”

With a final goodbye, Danny flew as fast as he could back to his house. He hoped that his mother won’t get angry with him.

-ooOOoo-

“You’re late”

Maddie commented with her hands on her hips and patting a foot onto the ground. Her son shuffled in his spot in front of the doorway. He gave her a nervous laughter as he rubbed the back of his head.

“Y-Yeah, about that… I ran into Skulker.”

She stared at him, knowing full well who he talked about. After he came out to his parents about being a halfa, he showed them all the information he had on the other ghosts. One of the more persistent ghosts, they found out, was this ghost by the name of Skulker. Her figure stiffened and then relaxed. Her blue eyes looked at her son with apologetic, but still firm look.

“I see, but you are still late. Your tutor is here and talking to your father.”

Danny looked at her in horror.

“You left my tutor with _dad_?”

Maddie gave him a humored smile.

“Believe it or not, they get along quite well.”

Her son blinked at her several times. What kind of tutor did they hire for him? _Nobody_ got along with his dad, aside from the immediate family and his friends. Everybody else saw him as worthless, freakish and unintelligent man. All of these were as far off as one could get. Sure he was an airhead, but the guy was a genius without a doubt. Yet, Danny never saw nor heard of anybody that got along with the man. Everyone else preferred to be as far away from him as possible, which he understood. The head of the Fenton family wasn’t exactly… careful with his equipment. This made the black headed 17 years old unsure if he should be scared of his new tutor or amazed.

In the end, he was led to the living room by his mother. In the living room, sure enough, was his dad. Across from him on another couch sat a teenage girl that appeared his age. Danny took in her features with interest. She dressed professional with a touch of personal style that didn’t clash with her intended appearance. It didn’t even clash against her death-like pale skin. It surprised him. Her red hair was super short and messy, giving it a shag-like appearance. Somehow, it appeared messier than his hair, which had a personality of its own. Her grey eyes hovered over a gun that his dad must have given her, with high intelligence.

“Here is Danny.” Maddie announced. The two other figures looked up and a pair of grey eyes landed on him. “Ulima, this is Danny, my son and your student. Danny, this is Ulima, your new tutor.”

His tutor, Ulima, stood up. Danny’s eyes widened at her height. He stood at the height of 6’ 4’’, and she was only a few inches off. When he looked down at her shoes, he saw that they were flats. _Woh_ , he thought with amazement. Every girl he met so far was much shorter than him. This was a first. A hand was thrusted in front of him. She greeted him with a touch of shyness to her smile.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Ah, you too, Ulima?”

Danny shook her hand, now confused about her name. _Who names their kid Ulima?_ The shyness from her smile disappeared and her eyes twinkled a bit with laughter.

“I know, weird name. You should hear my brothers, theirs are worse.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, my parents wanted to be different.”

The teenagers turned their attention back to the other adults in the room, who were ready to leave. Jack boomed with a giant grin:

“Have fun kids. We’re off to make more ghost weapons.”

“Ulima, dear, if you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask."

Maddie said next with a comforting and welcoming smile. This relaxed the female teenager who returned her smile.

“Thank you Mrs. Fenton”

A second later, the teenagers were left alone in the living room. Awkward silence hung between the two. They didn’t know what to do with the other now that they were alone. They tried not to make it obvious, but they studied each other. In a way, it was to figure out what kind of a person their teacher slash student was. The red headed of the duo cleared her throat.

“Ah… we can take it easy for today, since it’s our first meeting. We can use the next few hours to get to know each other. It’ll help me figure out the best way to teach you.”

“Ah… sure.”

Danny shrugged and led her back to the living room. There, they sat on the couches for the next few hours, getting to know each other as planned. They started with the basics, like what they liked, disliked and their hobbies. Much to Danny’s shock, his new tutor’s hobbies had a lot to do with geography. She collected mineral rocks and sea shells, but she hasn’t done the latter part since they moved here 8 years ago. She also enjoyed playing around with geography graphs. Sometimes she drew maps as a challenge. This was a pleasant surprise, because one of the topics she needed to help him with was geography. Due to that, she planned to bring for those lessons some of her mineral rocks to help him understand the material better. Then there were some comments that surprised him.

“You’re going to Casper High School? Your parents didn’t say anything, but now it makes a lot of sense.”

“What do you mean?”

He asked in confusion. She gave him a look.

“No offence, but every school in the city knows that your school has some of the worse bullying cases here. Every time we have assemblies against bullying, your school is used as an example of how _not_ to act. Your grades make sense to me now, because it’s hard to get high grades in such an environment.”

This surprised Danny. He didn’t know that other schools thought so low on his. Okay, he knew that his school had a tad problem with the subject. After all, the ‘in crowd’ treated everyone else like they were dirt beneath their feet. It didn’t help that a lot of the teachers encouraged it by not doing anything. Then there were times when these teachers gave them the credit of another student’s. He remembered on many occasions things that he and his friends did something and the cheerleaders or jocks took the credits. When the popular crowd did something wrong, the blame usually got placed on the other students. This could also explain why compare to the other schools, his high school’s population was the lowest. Danny should have realized it when he first met Poindexter.

“That’s… nice to know… I guess?”

Ulima shrugged and gave him a comforting smile.

“You shouldn’t worry too much about it. You’re smart. With a little bit of studying, you’ll get straight A’s in no time.”

Danny stared at her in shock. This was the first time someone described him as smart. Usually it was Tucker who got labelled as that, which was of no surprise. He really was the smartest person in their group. But he couldn’t comprehend why his tutor thought like this, when his grades said otherwise.

“Have you seen my grades?”

“Yeah, but school marks doesn’t equal to one’s intelligence.” She answered as a matter-of-fact. In a way, she sounded much like Jazz, which made him smile. He missed his sister, though he might never admit that. “Think about it this way. Your parents are geniuses and they told me your sister got accepted on a full scholarship. Not only that, but she’s going to one of the top universities in this country. In a family full of geniuses, it’s not possible for you not to be one too. You witnessed all your life the sort of things that your parents built, am I right?” He nodded. “And when they talk about science, is it hard for you to understand them? No? Then there you go. You are smart, but you need help to transfer the knowledge onto the pages.”

Danny stared into space with a thoughtful look. Everything she said was true. While Sam sometimes got lost when his parents explained something ghost and science related, it wasn’t the same for him and Tucker. Sure his best guy friend knew far more than he did, but that was beside the point. The halfa might even know more science than his science teacher did. The problem was that his classes were so boring that sometimes he didn’t have leftover energy to care.

“Okay, what should we start with, tutor?”

The red headed teenager leaned against the couch and crossed her arms. A confidence smile touched upon her lips. It made him wonder if that was a good smile or one that he should be nervous about.

“From what I hear about your likes, dislikes and hobbies, your main learning style is kinaesthetic. That means that you learn better when you get to work with physical objects. I’ll write up lesson plans around that for this week and we can get started tomorrow. I want to see how it’ll go. If it doesn’t work out, then we’ll have to see what other learning styles you have that we can work with. Finding out your main learning style will help you a lot in any college or university you want to go to. It’ll cut down a lot of studying time and get rid of many headaches. At least, that’s what my family kept on telling me before I figured out mine.”

Grey eyes landed on the wall clock and they narrowed a bit. She placed her hands on her knees and got up.

“Well, it’s time for me to go. I can’t be late for dinner. My dad is finally home from work and the whole family is getting together. If I don’t show up, my brothers will hunt me down.”

Danny saw that her backpack was next to him and grabbed it then handed it to her. She smiled in thankfulness and took it. He walked her to the door.

“Hey, thanks for taking your time to help me.” He shared her smile. “I really appreciate it.”

“Not a problem. If you have any questions or need me, your mom has my number. Don’t be afraid to call on the weekends. See you tomorrow.”

Danny watched Ulima walk to her car and get in before she drove off. He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway, looking at the direction with wonder. When he thought about getting a tutor, he thought she might be stuck up or something. That she’d make fun of him and bully him more than help, but it could be the Casper High School stereotypes talking. Still, she made him open his eyes with hope for the future. Sure she was a shy girl, but he saw that she really cared. Ulima actually listened to him with respect and took everything he said into consideration to help him study. It was more than he could say about some people.

For once, Danny looked forward to the next day aside from hanging out with his friends.

-ooOOoo-

Two months passed since Ulima started to teach Danny. The teenagers saw the months passed by in different ways.

Ulima was proud to announce that she was right about his learning style. Ever since the first week of success, she brought in more things for him to play around with while they studied what the object was. In terms of geography, she brought her minerals, graph charts and other things. Though, one of her minerals acted weird. It glowed when Danny touched it. The whole family freaked out, leaving her confused. If not for Maddie, Jack would have destroyed the rock. She didn’t need to be told not to bring that particular mineral over anymore.

In terms of relationships, she got along with the Fenton parents quite well. Sometimes when Danny was late, which annoyed her to no end, she’d end up talking with them until he showed up. The topics ranged, but she always managed to keep up with the geniuses, much to their happiness. With her student, their relationship was a mix of student slash teacher and friendship. It all started when, one time, he called her in the evening and wanted to talk. Ulima could tell that he sounded really sad and frustrated, and that he needed someone to talk to. She lend him her listening ear and learned that his frustrations came from his decline relationship with his girlfriend. His best guy friend didn’t help things much, as he tended to stay out of their fights. Out of those two, his parents couldn’t help much and neither could his sister. Aside from those five, he had nobody to turn to. It’d explained why he went to her in the end. After all, she told him that if he needed anything that he was welcome to call her. It made her wonder about who his friends were, especially the girlfriend. Funny how in two months, she hasn’t met them. From what the Fenton parents said, wherever Danny went, his friends weren’t far behind.

Then there was something that concerned her. His late arrivals were one thing, but sometimes he came home with injuries. His dad distracted her while his mom helped him clean up. They tried not to make it obvious that something was going on, but they failed. It made her worry. Ulima wanted to tell her mother about it. Her mother was a judge, so she knew a lot of laws and had the power to look into it. But she couldn’t. It’d betray the Fenton’s trust in her. So she kept quiet, but kept a close watch on her student and new friend. Thanks to her eldest brother being a doctor, she knew some medical stuff. So she brought stuff like healing cream and pain killers and hid them for Danny to find. Ulima could only hope that he’d be alright in the end.

For Danny, ever since Ulima became his tutor, he found his grades going up. He came home with B+ or A- every time with a rare A+. It made his parents quite happy and proud of him. It also got the teachers to back off, finally. There now was a guarantee that he’d graduate with the rest of his peers. Sure his usual bullies now started to call him a geek, but he could deal with it. His future once again appeared bright and the chances of getting into good post-second education increased with every tutoring. It gave him a boost of confidence, and it was all thanks to Ulima.

His tutor was something else. Danny found out from the first week of constant lateness that she didn’t tolerate _anyone_ from being late, at all. If you were on time, perfect. If you were early, that was even better. To her, time was everything. When he asked her about it, she told him that it was a habit from her childhood. At some point in time, she was so late to classes every day, that she got her first and only detention. After a long lecture from both her parents, it’d forced the habit of keeping track of time into her. Danny appreciated that she stayed patient with him. In return, he made an effort to be on time. Then there was the friend that he found in her. Outside their tutoring sessions, they could act like friends. They got to know each other during those times, so much more. Ulima was a funny young woman, but liked to keep the jokes to a minimal. A minimal, for her, meant appropriate times. But she appreciated his sense of humour, if her lack of lectures said anything about it.

That aside, the fights with the other ghosts turned a bit… ugly nowadays. Over the last month and a half, he came home almost every day with some new injury. His parents really tried to help him keep his halfa status a secret and he appreciated it. But he didn’t think that it worked anymore. Not when he found medicine all around the house, which both his parents didn’t know where they came from. He came to the conclusion that, even though Ulima didn’t know his secret, she cared enough to help in some way. When he thought about it, the idea made him smile.

But today was not a good day.

Sam broke up with him, not even half an hour ago. She made it easier on the two of them by doing it after school, after all their bullies left. They stood behind the school and she broke up with him in an unusual gentle way.

“Danny, I can’t do this anymore. I love you, but I can’t sit and wait for you forever to have time for me. I think it is best that we stay as friends.”

To emphasis the end of their relationship, she gave back the ring he gave her. He stared at it openly, when Tucker found them. When he saw the situation, he backed away with a guilty look. It made Danny realize that his best friend knew about the soon breakup and didn’t have the guts to come to him and say something. If he did, then the halfa would have worked harder to make the relationship work. Now, it left Danny walking home alone in depression.

When he got home, Danny locked himself up in his room and refused to come out. The only thing he said was that Sam broke up with him. Jack and Maddie were worried. The head of the family wanted to take down the door, but his wife didn’t allow it. Instead, she tried to pursue her son to come out in a gentler manner. He still didn’t. In the end, 10 minutes before Ulima’s arrival, Maddie picked up the phone to call her. Her plan was to cancel the appointment, but when the tutor asked what the matter was, she explained.

“Expect me in 30 minutes.”

It was the only thing Ulima said before the line got cut off. As she said, 30 minutes later, she showed up at the front door with a plastic bag in one hand and her backpack on her back.

“Is he still not out?”

The grey eyed giant asked. Maddie shook her head, looking at the bags.

“No, Jack is still there trying to get him out. What are you carrying?”

“Snacks and stuff. Is it possible for you to show me where his room is?”

Even though she taught Danny for two months, Ulima never went upstairs, so she didn’t know her way around. It was out of respect for the family, as they placed a lot of trust in her. Since they didn’t give their permission, she never went to explore the upstairs. The female head of the family gave the teenager a kind smile. She couldn’t believe that she and her husband found such a kind young woman to help their son. They expected the help to be in schooling, but it was a bonus that she helped him outside of it too.

“Of course, come.”

The two females made their way upstairs. They got to Danny’s room in time, as Jack looked ready to really take down the door with a bazooka looking thing.

“Uh, Mr. Fenton, I don’t think Danny will appreciate you taking down his door.”

“Ah! Ulima, you’re here.” The head of the family smiled with brightness, before frowning at the door. “I don’t know about that. I can use this-”

“Jack, no blowing up the door.”

Maddie scolded her husband, who had the decency to appear ashamed.

“Yes dear”

“I’ll try to talk to him, but I don’t think you two being here will help. He needs a friend right now.” The red headed young woman gave the two an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry to say that we teenagers don’t like going to parents for help.”

The parents sighed together. Neither of them looked pleased, but knew that she was right. They had enough experiences with their children to know that.

“I know we can trust you dear, but no funny business.”

“Yeah, what she said.”

Ulima smiled at their backs as they left downstairs. The adults threw back a few worried looks, but continued onto their destination. She turned around and allowed worrisome to appear on her face. With a few knocks on the door, she announced:

“Danny, it’s me. Can I come in?”

“Go away”

A muffled reply came from the inside. It sounded rough and depressed, as if he cried. His tutor slash friend put her foot down, not moving an inch from the spot.

“I’m not going anywhere. So you can open the door so that I can come in and we can talk. I brought some things, like snacks.”

“I’m not hungry”

Ulima ran her hand through her shaggy red hair, unsure of what to do next. In the end, she put her back to the door and sat down. With the backpack taken off her back and placed on her lap, she shuffled through the contents inside. While she got everything ready, she continued talking. It was the most that she could do, considering the situation.

“Okay, so let’s talk. Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Danny didn’t reply. On the other side of the door, his body curled up against the doorway. His blue puffy eyes looked tired at the thin air in front of him. He didn’t want to talk about anything, especially the breakup. His cellphone rested beside him, vibrating every so often. The locked page brightened and it showed that Tucker tried to send him texts and calls, but they were ignored. The halfa didn’t want to talk or think about his supposed best friend. If he was his best friend, then he would have gone to him with concerns, not stood aside and watched in silence. Right now, Danny considered it a personal betrayal, worse than the time Tucker went out with Valerie.

He trusted him.

“No”

Danny whispered, but loud enough for the other person to hear. Back with Ulima, she hummed in acceptance. Her fingers played around with a wire before she slid onto it some objects. She decided to talk about something else, to get his mind off of the breakup.

“Do you want to hear about a prank that someone pulled on my Math teacher, today?”

“A prank?”

The black headed halfa asked, as he pulled his legs closer to his chest to rest his cheek against them. His arms wrapped around them to keep them in place. The female giant laughed and nodded, even though he couldn’t see her.

“Yes. Our Math teacher isn’t the most popular guy at the school. He gives us 15 pages of problems to take home every day, expecting us to complete them by the next day. He also gives us assignments, telling us that we can’t get help to complete them. The assignments always have to do with building stuff, which I suck at. Ironic, really. I can’t figure it out for the life of me. Like one time, we had to figure out how to build a fish tank. We had to figure out the costs for the material, what we need and all of that. I tell you now, if not for one of my brothers, I’d be in so much trouble of failing that class.” Ulima ranted a bit, the thought of the teacher pissed her off. It made Danny on the other side smile in amusements. “He doesn’t teach us shit! Things that we can figure out in our heads, he forces us to use a fancy 100 dollar calculators. And we can’t get around it. We have to write down every single step that we took to get the answer.”

“That’s not fair”

“I know! The bastard had it coming.”

The grey eyed young woman scowled. Danny found it fascinating that she got angry, at all. Sure he saw her annoyed self, but angry? That was a foreigner emotion for her, as far as he knew. This was the first time he saw, or more so heard, her angry voice. It was funny, because of how pouty she sounded. He also never heard her curse, which was even funnier. It almost made him want to laugh, but it did make him smile a bit. He listened with interest as something on the other side got cut. He wondered what she was doing.

“- he opened the drawer and _boom_ , shredded papers hit him right in the face. They held all the assignments and homework and tests and _everything_! Best of all, they were covered in superglue, so he couldn’t get them off of him. He walked all day covered head to toe in them. You should have seen his face. It was so red that it puts my gorgeous red hair to shame.”

Danny gave out a weak, dry chuckle. He could only imagine what the situation must have looked. He voiced out with amused scepticism:

“No way”

“Yes way and it doesn’t stop there. Every time he went into his classroom, a toy hammer comes flying at him from somewhere and _wham_! He gets a huge _F_ printed on his face. By the end of the day, he got covered all over by them. Nobody knows who did it, but we declared that person a hero.”

Ulima laughed at the memories and put on the finishing touches on the object in her hands. Her laughter was joined by a deeper one. It made her smile a bit more, knowing that her temporary plan worked. The duo sat in comfortable silence. The only sounds on their respectful sides were either the phone vibrating or the craft in hand. Danny relaxed and thought about the day more. He took his hand out of a pocket and saw the ring with _Sam_ written inside resting on his palm. His vibrant blue eyes saddened at the sight of it. He clenched his fist around the ring tight. Danny broke the silence.

“Sam broke up with me today.”

Ulima stopped in her activity, surprised to hear that. She didn’t know what he went through, because she never had a boyfriend. There were a few crushes here and there, but never actual dating. With three elder brothers, a mother judge and a giant, tough, pilot dad, it became impossible. So she could only imagine the pain he must feel right now. From the lack of experience, the only thing she could say was this.

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I love her”

Sadness filled his voice, which tightened her heart in shared pain. Ulima tried her best to comfort him.

“Hey, things happen. If it’s not meant to be… then you have to let it go.”

“How can I? She still wants to be my friend, but it’ll feel so… so…”

“Awkward?”

 “Yeah.” Danny admitted. “We’ve been dating for a year and a half. Almost two. I know things have been strained between us… but I didn’t expect her to break up with me.”

Ulima hummed as she tried to come up with some sort of advice, only for her to come up blank. If it was any other subject, sure she’d give out an advice. Romance? If her brothers heard or saw her current situation, they’d be dying from laughter. They’d pet her head, no matter she was their height, and say that was cute. To be fair, they were right. What’d she know about romance? Now, what do people say in these situations?

“Ah… She didn’t deserve you?”

The red head wanted to slam her face into the nearest wall. Wow, way to make that sound convincing. After a few moments of silence, laughter broke the tense atmosphere. It came from the halfa. His laughter came from deep in his stomach and continued without a pause for another minute or two. It almost hurt to breathe from how much he laughed. It made Ulima pout, knowing he laughed at her.

“You’re not good at this, are you?”

Danny asked between breathless chuckles. The other protested:

“Hey, I’m trying here! Give me a few bonus points.”

“Hm… how about A+ for effort?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Once again, silence fell between the two. The two shared a smile, without the other’s knowledge. The one inside the room felt better. He was happy that she didn’t force or demand of him of anything, unlike his parents. Blue eyes hovered over the phone next to him, and saw that now Sam started to text and call him. Lips turned upside down into a frown, having an idea as to why. If Tucker couldn’t get in contact with him, who else could? Aside from these two, he didn’t have any other friends. Though, that wasn’t true, considering the one on the other side of the door. At the thought of his tutor slash friend, Danny smiled once more. He got up and grabbed his phone and ring. With the phone turned off, he disposed of the objects into a drawer in the wooden desk. Turning his back to the objects, he walked back to the door, with more relaxed shoulders. He unlocked his door and opened it, only to jump back in surprise as a body fell into his room. Ulima stared up in the ceiling with confusion, trying to register what just happened. Danny bit his bottom lip to stop new laughter that threatened to come out. He asked with casualty:

“What are you doing down there?”

“Oh, you know, confused. One minute I am leaning against a door and the next I’m laying on my back looking up at you.”

Danny gave her kudos for going along with his dry sense of humour, considering it didn’t match hers. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he saw something in her hands and on the ground in the corridor.

“Are you… making a necklace?”

This made Ulima sit up as straight as an arrow. She turned to face him completely and crossed her legs.

“Yes” She patted the ground next to her for him to take a seat. The halfa did. His back was to one of the door frames with his legs stretched out into the room. He studied the box, scissors and wire that rested in front of where she sat. The lid of the box was open and inside was all sorts of colourful beads. It made him wonder if making jewelry was another hobby of hers. He didn’t dwell on it for too long before Ulima put the necklace into one of his open palms. “This is for you.”

Danny looked down at the necklace and took note of its appearance. It was large enough for him to slip it over his head with ease, so there wasn’t a hook or something at the back. The wire remained unseen, with it covered by beads of earthy colours. All of them small, expect for one. That one thing rested in the middle and it was a stone. It appeared brownish yellow with no clear shape to it. It got held in place by a wire tied to the necklace. The size of it was small in his hand, half the size of his pinky, but still large in its own right. Looking back at the objects in the corridor, the black headed halfa came to a conclusion that she made it here, while talking to him.

“What…?”

Danny spoke with confusion, unsure how to ask the numerous questions in his mind. Ulima took no notice of it. Instead, she smiled and encouraged him to put it on with a hand gesture. With hesitation, he did and found it as easy to put on as he suspected.

“I thought you might like something to cheer you up. So I grabbed one of my brot- I mean, _my_ jewelry toolkit and came here. I also grabbed one of the crystals that I keep as a collection, thinking it might cheer you up. It _should_ cheer you up, considering that is a Yellow Jasper. It’s supposed to give you happy emotions.”

Danny looked with amusements at the necklace on him then threw the expression at her. His smile twitched upwards even more, having caught her ‘mistake’. Warmth showed in that smile, when he saw how much trouble she went through to make it. It beat having a make-over like girls did after breakups, so he didn’t make a protest against a necklace. Guys could wear necklaces, but not fancy ones like girls did. It didn’t matter to him that he didn’t really believe in the whole ‘crystals have powers’ ordeal that some people went gaga over. It was the thought that counted.

“I… thank you.”

He accepted her gift. She smiled with brightness and brought over the plastic bag filled with snacks and placed it between them.

“Now, you going to eat the junk food I brought you, or what? I can leave it here, but I don’t think Mr. Fenton will leave you any leftovers.”

The two shared an amused smile and Danny accepted the food. The first thing that he took out was a bag of potato chips. So they sat there, each leaned against an unoccupied doorframe and simply talked while eating. No tutoring took place that day. No, it was an evening spent between two friends. Ulima stayed over for dinner after his mother convinced her. It was as a thank-you for taking him out of his room. He still didn’t tell his parents much of what happened, but it didn’t matter. Dinner became entertaining, with the only non-Fenton getting a front row seat to a Fenton Dinner. Danny almost fell off the chair from laughing so hard at her wide eyed look as their dinner became alive and his mom shot it.

By the time that Danny went to bed, he felt much better and slept with a smile. His cellphone and ring left forgotten in the drawer.


End file.
